My Week with Marilyn (Simon Curtis, 2011)

An account of Marilyn Monroe's fling with a crew member during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl in London, relying on his autobiography for its factual basis, My Week with Marilyn takes a potentially interesting idea and fails to do much with it, largely because of flat photography and a script that doesn't go much beyond the perfunctory. Michelle Williams captures Monroe's mannerisms and voice to a tee, but that's all the story does too, with her anxiety-fuelled overdoses and fits of feeling cornered by all around her repeating how luminous she is. It's not the actress's fault that she is actually rather ordinary-looking, but it should have been dealt with first thing in casting. Meanwhile, Eddie Redmayne gawps on with his usual soulful teary eyes as the young man fawning over her, and Kenneth Branagh's Olivier is so much of a mannered impersonation it feels like he's just taking the piss. It's all very forgettable.

4/10